You probably have seen her in a number of Facebook video clips plugging a number of Filipino delicacies in her kitchenette in Doonside,NSW. A distinct hallmark of the video was a presentation on a typical Filipino dish available in her suburban kitchenette with a typical Filipino visitor of her establishment, And most probably extolling the virtues of the Filipino-Chinese dumpling known popularly in the Philippines as siopao”
Or if you are a Sydneysider you could have met her personally during a Philippine community function resplendent in her glamorous getup pitching her NU SKIN cleansing product or maybe flagging another networking Japanese product called Kangen alkaline water iodiser.
Or she might have been simply supervising her latest food catering commitment for a Filipino wedding party or birthday function.
Sydney restauranteur and food businesswoman Ms Teresa Pacuba of Doonside, NSW continues to keeps on reinventing herself.
The former investor migrant Ms Teresa Pacubas who opened the West Sydney popular licensed restaurant called Barrio Fiesta, then later on renamed Magnolia is back on her toes once again preparing for her well known food festival stall in the coming Fiesta Kultura first week in Ocober in Fairfield, NSW>
The Philippines Food Festival is an enduring part of the Philippine Fiesta Kultura which is hosted every year by the Philippine Australian Sports and Culture (PASC) Inc, along with the annual beauty pageant Miss Philippines Australia, and a Trade and Tourism Expo and a potpourri of cultural and sports program for the Philippine Australian community and its friends. The Fiesta is running on its 29th year.
Ms Teresa Pacubas is typical of the Filipina food entrepreneur who ventures to operate food festival stall every year during the Fiesta and take hold of many other business opportunities during off-Fiesta days.
After several years of operating the Magnolia Restaurant, this personable Ilocana migrant stepped back from her full-time occupation as restauranteur for Filipino dishes and operated home-based food catering business, accepting “cooking” or “paluto” or home cooked Filipino dishes thereby maintaining her presence in the culinary business in the Philippine community.
She cooks practically every popular dish and later on prioritised the production of the Filipino dumpling called “siopao”, maintaining her presence in the community food market.
However, early this year she opened again a small kitchenette in Doonside,NSW in a site just adjoining her old larger Magnolia restaurant called it Teresa Siopao and Catering. All along she continued the food festival stall during the Philippine Fiesta every year.
In a recent interview, Teresa revealed she is also engaged in another business of renting premises near a train station and subletting them to mostly newly arrived Filipinos and those who are not able to rent bigger place for individuals and their families.
She also said she has continued as agent for the franchise business Kangen Water, an anti-oxidant alkaline ionised water with reportedly many personal healthy effects to consumer. Then, she has also engaged in the networking business called ACN LLM mobile phone multi-level marketing which factors household subscriptions for telephone services and electric power supply and related public utilities services. ACN markets cheaper long-term subscriptions to budget conscious consumers of telephone and power services..
Ms Pacubas said ACN is ideal for consumers who haven’t explored the benefits of power and telephone supply services subscription..
In the meantime, Teresa is now preparing for the coming Philippine Fiesta scheduled on first week of  October this year. In every Philippine Fiesta, people patronise her larger sized festival food stall which sells favourite Filipino food, especially the ever present lechon or Filipino roasted pork.
For the rest of the year, Teresa operates the Teresa Siopao and Catering in a premise just in front of the Doonside train station. She retails Filipino dishes such as kare-kare, dinuguan, apritada, plus snacks or kakanin such as suman, kalamay, puto, bibingka. and of course the ever available Filipino-Chinese “siopao”.
Presently, Teresa receives bulk order for her siopao from mostly Filipino customers in Greater Sydney and periodic orders from as far as Gold Coast in Queensland.
This early, this workaholic businesswoman is already preparing for her next food stall project in the coming Philippine PASC Fiesta.
Teresa Siopao and Catering is located at 253 Doonside Crescent, NSW. By Nonoy Perdon